Sarah
by michelle.lindsted
Summary: Sarah, a 17 years old danish girl, tries to fend for herself, and the mute 6-year old kid she has found, in a world not fit for humans. What will happen, when she finds Ricks group after several months on her own? Will she let her guard down and start trust humans again? Can she give love a try in a doomed world? Daryl/OC I follow the tv-series storyline up until season 4
1. Chapter 1

She enclosed her pray. She hated hunting in the night. The lack of light was a weakness she could not afford. But it had showed impossible to hunt at day. Because of a massive herd they had been forced to hide high up in a tree, trying hard neither to move nor to speak. Not that the last had been a problem…

She fixated her eyes on the bird before her. Bird. Wings. She had to be quick. No distractions. Quit. Stilness. She sharpened her hearing and prayed to whatever idiot who controlled her faith, that she would be allowed to have a meal tonight. A decent meal. It had been too long. They had to eat soon. _He_ had to eat soon.

Everything around her was quiet. With only the company of an owl she slowly neared the bird before her. She wanted to get as near to it as possible. A wooden stick cracked beneath her feet. The bird´s head popped op. She could see how scared it was. Its small chest quickly filled and loosened air, as it decided whether to flight or stay. It was probably a mother out looking for food to its kid. Just like her.

The bird lost focus and started scavenging the ground again. Her inside said a quit prayer for the bird´s soul, as she lifted the arm. She took aim. She only had one try. She was getting better, but the bird was still at least 12 feet away. She had no choice. She had to try hitting it from this distance. If the bird heard another unnatural sound, it would fly away. And so would their meal.

She took a quit deep breath, focused, aimed, and threw the knife through the air. Less than a second later the bird was humping around bleeding. The knife had hit its side. She hurried over to it before both her meal and her weapon disappeared. Her ears focused. She could not have one of them sneaking up on her from behind with only one knife in possession. She could not take that risk. She grabbed the bird, pulled her bloody knife out if its body and snapped its neck, always fixating both her eyes and her ears on the looming dark all around her. She tight the birds body to the strings hanging from the side of her belt and headed back to the tree. She tried not to enjoy just yet. Things could easily turn upside down on less than a minute. She held her knives in both her hands and walked quietly through the night.

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She smelled it, before she heard it, and she heard it, before she saw it. Stupid walker. Making all that noise. And she had been so careful not to draw any attention to her on the walk back to the kid. Total waste of time.

The walker was too occupied on the little human in the trees above it to notice her. Good, she though. This would be easy. She quietly neared the walker back, lifted her arm and hit it in the neck right before its cheekbone, the blade up towards the brain. The walker stopped moaning and fell to the ground. It had never laid an eye on her. Killed from behind. A traitor and a cowards way of killing. But if a cowardly way of killing could help keep her and the kid alive yet a day, she would gladly continue being a coward. And a traitor… well, at least she was not going to eat him. It. It is an it. Not a him. Once a him. Now and it. _You okay? _She asked the kid. _Okay. _

She thought about eating the bird she had captured raw. She was so hungry, that it would not mind her at all, but it would mite mind the kid. So she started on building a small fire, using the sticks around her. Rain was both good and bad these days. Bad because it would get anything wet and make it impossible to make a fire. Good because then they would have something to drink. Luckily it had rained a bit yesterday. They had managed to fill 1 ½ bottle.

Finally she got the still halv-wet wood to light up in a small fire. She cleaned a stick with water from a lake ,they had passed by a couple of days ago, and sharpened it. Then she held it into the fire. After a while she was satisfied in it cleanness and stuck the dump side in the ground. She took the bloody bird and removed as much of the feathers as she could. She skewered the bird and watched the meat going from being bloody red to golden brown. The smell was all around her, and she knew nearby walkers would smell it too. She quickly kicked grass and earth on the fire and hurried over to the tree, where the kid had patiently waited. Without a word being exchanged between them, the kid hurried down to the lower branches, grabbed the now staked bird from her and hurried up into the tree yet again. The girl was right behind the kid. They did not stop before they were several meters above ground. They found the two strong branches; they had been using while the herd had passed by them that day, and sat down. The boy still holding the bird on the stick in his hands tried giving the meal to the girl. With eyes nearly closed from exhaustion she said; _no. You first._ The boy hesitated, but it was obvious to both of them exactly how hungry he was, and few minutes later half the bird was gone. Then he stopped and gave it back to the girl. She tried making him take some more, but he refused. _Full?_ She asked him. He nodded, but they both knew, that he could easily eat the whole bird himself and probably a lot more than she could offer him right know. She thought about making the kid eat the rest, but she really needed the food. She just hated making the kid starve. When she had finished, she threw the stick away, and found the two ropes from her backpack. After a few minutes both the kid and her where fastened to the tree. She secured his ropes to be sure. She could not sleep otherwise. After checking the ropes she padded him lightly on the cheek. His lips formed a small smile. Then his eyelids fell down, and he fell asleep. Despite her exhaustion she could not sleep at first. Her branch had a perfect view to the sky and the stars. They were so much brighter out here on the country, than they had ever been in the cities. She had always loved the stars. She had often dreamed about being together with them several million kilometers away. And now more than ever. She looked over at the kid´s face. He always looked so peaceful, when he slept. He looked like a child. She sighed. This was not a world for children.


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up to the sound of birds and the brightness of the sun. The sun was just starting to rise. Good. That would give them more time. She looked down to the earth several meters beneath them. Clear. She woke up the boy, and they untied themselves from their branches. Her whole body ached from the uncomforting way she had slept, but she knew from experience, that it would quickly disappear, once they started walking.

She crawled down first. She jumped the last meter and the second her feet hit the ground she pulled out her knives and looked around. She sharpened her hearing, but she could only hear the small creatures of the forest starting to wake up. The natural creatures. The harmless. Most of them were birds, which seemed to be the species, who managed to stay alive longest in this new world. Probably because of the wings. That must be a great advantage…

She signaled the boy to throw down the backpacks.

After a few minutes they were safely on their way. But still… safety was overrated.

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They had been walking for several hours, when she finally stopped. The boy needed resting. He had never complained on their marathon-a like walks, but she knew that a small guy like him was not build for a several miles walk each day. He belonged in a kindergarten. With kids on his own age. He should be playing, running around like a maniac, screaming nonsense-words into the air. But that was not going to happen…

She gave the kid the bottle that was half-full. _Only a little_, she reminded him. She could not let him swallow all they had. Who knew when it would rain or when they would run across a river? And even though they did find a river, she could not be sure the water was even clean enough for them to drink.

She let her eyes wander. They were surrounded by trees. There were leaves all around on the earth below them and every time they took a miscalculated step, she could hear it. That was both good and bad. They made noise, but that meant the walkers did too.

She looked up at the sun. They still had some hours of daylight left. She looked back at the kid. He met her eyes with an ashamed look in his. Her eyes lowered to the bottle he held in his hands. The empty bottle. She knew she should be angry. Their water-resources were extremely limited, and swallowing all of it at once… they simply could not afford it. She knew she should punish him. _He_ knew it. He was looking down at his feet, not even daring to look her into the eyes.

She knew what she _should _do, but she simply… could not. Instead of anger she felt sadness. The kid had been walking around in the sun without water for hours without complaining_._ _She_ felt ashamed. She lifted the kid´s head so that he could look at her. _It´s okay_. She smiled reassuring and padded him on the cheek. The relief, she so clearly saw in the young boy´s eyes, cut her heart in half more efficient, than any knife could ever have. She took the empty bottle from his small hands and threw it in her backpack. She handed out her hand to the kid. After a small hesitation he grabbed it. With a kid in her left hand and a knife in the other, she started walking.

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She stood still. Not even daring to breath. Neither did the kid. He had heard it too. _Stay here_, she signaled and let go of his hand. She grabbed the other knife and slowly neared the sound. She was careful not to make one herself. She only had to sneak forward a few 10-20 meters, before she saw it. That poor animal. It was surrounded by three walkers. It had no change of escaping. Three, she calculated. All 'old' walkers. Weak. She would be a surprise. She could take them, but… She studied the animal. It was a beautiful brown rabbit. Big. Strong. Healthy. Her mouth automatically started drooling, but her brain protested. Her memory showed her a picture of Benjamin, the rabbit she had had back home. Home… It was probably dead by now. Ripped apart by the hands of the dead itself. She tried not to see it for her eyes. She tried not to see the blood…

There was no blood on this rabbit. The walkers had not touched it just yet. It´s scared black eyes where big as it looked all around it, trying to find a way out. A way for it to survive.

They really needed the food…

She leaped forward and hit one walker, in the soft spot right before the cheekbone, in the process. She rolled around on the ground and quickly got back up at her feet. The two walkers turned toward her. Her eyes found the bunny. It was trying to escape. With a silent sorry she threw one of her knives and skewered the rabbit to the ground, before her chance of a meal was gone. Hands out and eyes full of bare and ruthless hunger, the walkers neared her. She only had one knife left in position, but they were old. Slow. She stepped aside and hit walker no. two in the neck, knife up towards the brain. Weak. She pulled back the knife and turned towards unnatural creature no. 3. She let it come close, before she smashed the blade through its eyeball into the brain. It just stood there for a second, without realizing exactly what had happened. Then it fell backwards and hit the ground with a quiet bump. Dead.

She looked back at the rabbit, who had tried to escaped, when the walkers had lost their interest in it. It lay on the ground, knife in its belly keeping it there. She could see it was still breathing. Still fighting for its life even though it was unavoidably going to die. She quickly killed the rabbit before it had to suffer any further. It´s savior became it´s killer. "I´m sorry", she whispered. Her throat hurt. She had not spoken for quite a while. She tied the dead rabbit to her snares hanging form her belt and walked back to the kid, who was patiently waiting for her to come back.

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They only ate half the rabbit that night. Food two evenings in a row was a small miracle, and she did not want to push their luck. Who knew when they would find eatable food again? They had to make it last…

At the sound of the kid´s soft breathing she once again looked up at the bright sky above her. The stars. They had been there for so long. Longer than humankind itself. And they would be there long after humankind was gone, dead of the hands of the walking death. Long after she was gone. Death was in the end unavoidably. She knew that. Why did they even try? Why did she? Why crumply through the days, praying they would live another night, another hour, another minute? Why even try? But I guess, I'm just like the rabbit. Still trying to breath, even though death is unavoidably. Still trying to survive. And praying for a rescue who will never come.


End file.
